On February 27th, as part of the interdepartmental Oceans Symposium, students, faculty and Williamstown residents gathered to view a “A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish,” followed by a question and answer session with Elizabeth Kolbert. Kolbert is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a visiting professor at Williams. Her article in The New Yorker in 2006, “The Darkening Sea,” took on the important issues of ocean acidification and global climate change. Ocean acidification, “climate change’s evil twin,” is caused by the increase of carbon dioxide in the ocean and is causing immense damage to marine ecosystems.
“A Sea Change” is a documentary that follows Sven Huseby, a retired teacher and educator, as he investigates the issues of climate change and ocean acidification. Huseby read about ocean acidification for the first time in Kolbert’s 2006 article and was immediately fascinated with and moved by the plight of our oceans. Huseby was concerned by the legacy that would be left for his 5 year old grandson, Elias. He decided to undertake the task of educating himself, his grandson and the public about the issues that marine ecosystems face today.
The film follows Huseby as he travels all over the world, from a NOAA climate change conference, to a research station in Svalbard, to Google headquarters in California, to discuss these issues with scientists and advocates. He learns that the world’s oceans have absorbed over 118 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in the last 200 years, causing the pH of waters to fall globally. Many of the effects of increased acidification are not completely understood, but it is clear that it will have disastrous effects on marine ecosystems and industries. Pteropods, tiny marine organisms that form the basis of many marine food chains, are severely threatened by rising acidification. High levels of acid make it extremely hard for pteropods to form and maintain their translucent shells. This principle is demonstrated in the movie when a human tooth left overnight in carbonated water emerges severely cracked and damaged. A decrease in pteropods in the ocean will have massive effects on marine food chains, ecosystems and fishing industries. Huseby tries to address these issues through education with the hope that there will still be fish in sea for his grandchildren.
Written by McEntee